


Ra's al Ghul - Patience

by Nathaniel_Quietly



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: The Animated Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 17:07:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16350716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nathaniel_Quietly/pseuds/Nathaniel_Quietly
Summary: So for those who havent heard, October is here and we at DC Animated Adventures are teaming up with Nazario Designs to giveaway the complete Batman: The Animated Series on DVD! Chris will draw a villain a day and you just write a short 400-500 word story about that character and you're entered! That simple!Lance and I decided that we wanted to play along as well, even though we're not qualified to win (as we are putting on the contest). Here's my entry for today: The immortal Ra's al Ghul! (Check outThe DCAA Facebookfor more information.)





	Ra's al Ghul - Patience

One of the lesser considerations of functional immortality was how much one thought about the future. All the common fictions regarding the eternal had characters who ruminated on their long-distant pasts, tortured by memories of discourtesies and denizens long ended. The truth was, after a few hundred years, the fashions, the culture, the slings and arrows of bygone existence meant as much to an immortal as they did to a child on the breast. No, true immortality bestowed the wisdom to plan for the future, and the patience to await it.

He had to credit the Detective. His erstwhile heir had foiled a number of his plots and schemes in the years they had dueled. He could be… frustrating. Ra’s was man enough to admit that. But what the Detective could not grasp, what he would never truly understand, was that whatever fly in the ointment he fancied himself would eventually agitate itself out. That one day, only a few scant decades from now, the Detective would shake the mortal coil and go on to whatever just reward he ultimately believed he deserved. And Ra’s would mourn his loss, and shake his fists at the fates who denied him one more battle with his greatest, most deserving foe. Then he would slaughter however many wasteful, poisonous souls he deemed necessary to save the putrid planet, He would win.

Of course, there was also his daughter, Talia. Not only had she refused his repeated attempts to introduce her to the wonders of his Lazarus Pits, she even fell in love with the Detective. Had created a child with him! Sought immortality through progeny! And lost that very child to the Detective’s moral machinations, denying him a vessel with which to supplement the pits’ rejuvenative qualities. He understood the desire to procreate--after all, she wouldn’t exist had he not desired an heir and aid. But she refused to see beyond only a few pitiful years, accelerating the child’s growth artificially, denying him the wonders of the pits over Ra’s strenuous objections. 

There would be no escape. There was no recourse. The heroes focused on transient threats, so-called “super-villains” who could not see beyond their own petty, larcenous desires. And yes, he would occasionally initiate some grand design, some strategy whose fruit would have born fruit countless centuries hence, only to have it foiled by the Detective and his chosen brood. But it did not matter. It was a passing annoyance, rectified between ticks of the clock. He would be victorious.

He had time.


End file.
